Clutches on police bikes

[Ray]

How many miles should the police st1300 bike be able to go before changing out the clutch? I only have 5000 miles on mine and the clutch is already slipping at 5500 RPM's. :sad: Anyone else have this problem with theirs? Luckily Honda is going to take care of it for me this time.

[uptoblackwood]

50,000 plus on mine bike and not a sign of clutch trouble. I haven't heard of a clutch issue on the ST....with the exception of some syn oils being troublesome with slippage.

Forest

[sirepair]

I looked at the maintenance records that the PO of my 93 ST1100 had kept; Seems he changed the clutch at 75K miles and noted little wear.

Clutch life is most frequently effected by usage. Some riders are much harder on clutches than others.

Could also be an issue with the clutch actuation. You may want to have the service tech check the clutch master/slave cylinders and bleed the line. Also have them check/replace the clutch springs as weak springs will allow slippage.

[Mark]

Ray,

I haven't heard it confirmed; but, I heard that at the LEO rodeo in Tucson last year one of the ST1300s burned up a clutch.

Mark

[alany]

I'd bet it is on the wrong oil and this is the cause of the slippage.
But hey what do I know:D

alan Y

[bcst1300]

In 2003 City of Victoria bought 10 St1300 ABS Silver bikes. One of the motor officers managed to melt the aluminum bits in the clutch the first week. From the mechanic it was abuse and from an ex traffic Sargent who loves his Harley that officer was very hard on clutches in the HD too. I have not heard of any others. Wet clutches can withstand some abuse better than a dry one but everything has a limit.

[sam7]

We had one go out with less than a couple thousand miles on the bike. Honda finally covered it. The rest of our bikes are fine. There was a clutch that went out at the Tucson event and the Sheriff's department had one go out with very few miles. So far we have concluded that it is a combination of a bad clutch in some bikes and the transition from other bikes to the ST. You just don't have to put as much strain on the ST clutch as you do on a Kawasaki to control the bike. The Kawasaki clutches let you know when they are just about shot and you can do some cool off runs to get them back. The ST doesn't seem to let you know the same way.

[bluedragon]

I had 8500 on mine before it began to slip. Of course that was about a month of constant training. Now that most of the traimimg is over it should last a little longer.

[Ray]

:amflag: Thanks for the responses so far. It has been a wierd week. Yesterday and today the clutch has not been slipping like it did last week. When I brought it in to the Honda dealership last week even the tech said he thought it was about to go out because it was slipping so bad. They called Honda and they said they would replace it for free. :-) So now they are waiting for the parts to come in.

[Mark]

Has there been a change in temps? This week being cooler than last?
Or maybe less slow speed stop and go?

Or :) Are you learning to baby the clutch? :D

Mark

[Jefro]

In our motor pool, we have one officer that has gone through two clutches on his new ST1300P.
Nobody else is having trouble.
Jefro, HBPD.

[slo~ride]

I was talking to the BMW dealer the other day and this same subject came up. The sales guy as a retired motor officer said that the standard motor officer if doing what is taught in motor officer clutch control training, will go through 4-5 times the clutches as the regular rider. This is not specific to BMW, it applies to Honda, Kawi and Harley D's.

[tnman]

A neighboring city burned up one in only 600 miles in the first week of motor training. Obviously the riders fault. I have over 3k on mine and all is good. I talked to several that have 6k-8k miles on their original clutch.

Police riding is MUCH harder on clutches than civilian riding. Of course I only got 3K mile out of my front tire. Just the left side was bald from turning around on violators all the time.

[bluedragon]

Just the left side was bald from turning around on violators all the time.

Was that the original tire from Honda? We have had all our original front tires do the same thing. We put new aftermarket tires on and we have no problem with one side wearing differently.

Some attribute this to turning left at higher speed than right and some to the crown in the road.

[tnman]

Factory tire, replaced with same brand. I may switch on the next round if it does not improve.
Can't be the crown on the road because the wear is WAY over on the side.

[SoloTotoCoyote]

Where I work, we service the ST1300P for most of the surrounding departments. When the local dept switched to the ST from the KZ, they ended up going through the clutches rather quickly. After looking at the bikes and chatting with the officers, we figured it out. The motor training that the officers received had them resting atleast two fingers on the clutch lever while riding. With the KZ being a cable clutch, this wasn't a big deal. However the ST's hydraulic clutch is a bit more sensitive to it. We installed new clutches and the officers began riding without their fingers resting on the clutch. Problem solved. The officer's ST's now have 15-20k miles with no clutch issues whatsoever.

As far as tires, I've noticed that the officer's who are using the Dunlops are having lots of problems with cupping and excessive wear. We've been switching them over to the Bridgestone BT-020's and 021's and they are having no problems and getting much better mileage.

[Brad Felmey]

The ST doesn't allow for 5-minute clutch changes like the KZ-P. That's a great thing about the KZ1000 (which I have). You need a clutch? Flip the turkey over onto the bars, pop the cover off, stick in new discs, cover back on, pick up bike.

The ST is a whole 'nuther story.

[PJRNM]

Just turned 6000, no problems. We have another on the fleet thats at 10,000, again no problems.

[HB-ST1300PA]

Note: On the tire issue.... 50% come from the factory on Dunlop and 50% come with Bridgestone. 75% of the officers who get their tires changed at my dealership request the Bridgestone. We see tire changes from 3000 to 5000 miles, but mostly depends on riding style of the rider.

[motor2191]

What were you riding before getting onto the ST-P? If you were on a Hardley, then yeah, you're going to burn up a clutch. The HD is much easier to flog around, it's a lazy mans bike. If you're starting to go down, just give it gas, work the clutch, stand on the rear brake and you'll make it through the cones. On the ST, it takes better throttle control and the right balance with the clutch. So far, and nearly 7k on the bike, I've got no issues. Well, I might have issues, but the bike is fine.